My Connection with Billy Graham

In these days of unemployment and job searching I have some extra time on my hands and so I again came across a document written by my Godmother that she wrote about her life. It was a fascinating read as I only knew her from when I was a baby and living in the UK, from her letters that she regularly sent me, and from a visit when she came to the USA when I was 13. 

What is also fascinating to me is how small our world is...I've had the privilege of getting to know Ruth Graham as she is a member, along with her daughter and family, at our church here in Virginia. As it turns out, my Godmother's life and faith was greatly impacted by the ministry of the great Evangelist Billy Graham, Ruth's father. For four months my Godmother sang with "The Haringay Crusade Choir." She had this to say about her experiences with the Billy Graham Crusade that went through her part of England in 1954. (Thanks to her daughter Mary for typing up my Godmother's hand written notes that she left about her life.)

 "Billy Graham hit town. A friend Ruth and I joined The Haringay Crusade Choir and over those 4 months we went to Haringay twice a week for the 4 months. Wonderful talks in the evening meetings - Gospel always preached with authority, every night different presentation but always same "just as I am" and blessed assurance and aw inspiring response as gentleness of the invitation to Jesus accompanied by many hundreds of people responding quietly to the message with counselors moving out quietly to join with the folk. Then there were brilliant follow-up classes which brought the scriptures alive. We fell in love with the whole American team-they were so full of grace."

In another paragraph my Godmother wrote the following:

"We couldn't go every night - but we committed to going 2-3 times a week in the evenings. It was a great turning point in my life and enormous privilege to be part of a 1000 strong choir led by Cliff Barrows - he'd give us a note - then talk about how he wanted it sung - then given the signal and no further note we'd all come in together in the various harmonies. Then seeing so many come forward in answer to the message by Billy Graham. Our suspicions about Americans were soon allayed. Two of those who came forward one night was Tommy and some parishioners and 2 others were John Perry and Gay (aged 16 - later his wife - who didn't know each other then). Later to be my vicar in St. Andrews Church Chorleywood, now a Bishop."

Our God is truly sovereign! Not only did the Holy Spirit use Billy Graham, and his Crusades, to bring the Gospel to these folks. But Mr. Graham was also God's matchmaker as seen here with John Perry and Gay and ultimately with my Godmother, Doreen, who married "Tommy." Then these folks went on to do Gospel ministry in the church and with parachurch organizations like Ellel Ministries. God truly has a plan and a will for our lives. Awesome!!

As I was reading the document I found it funny how "suspicious" she was of these "American Evangelists" as she mentioned this a couple of times. Obviously the Lord won her heart over to Himself, and to Mr. Graham and his friends. 

From these notes it was clear that she loved to sing, especially "Thine be the Glory" and other great hymns of the faith. She was also impressed with the "direct preaching of the Gospel, presented straight, passionate yes but not soft or soppy. People who came forward were left in no doubt why they left their seats. ... Got to know Jesus more deeply in 4 months. Choir and counselors invited to attend special Bible classes before the meetings - wonderful food for a would be disciple & instructions on how to follow up those who made decisions."

Again, God is truly sovereign! My Godmother was greatly impacted by Billy Graham in 1954 and she then played a considerable role in my faith development over the years. I then came to Christ at a Billy Graham Youth Crusade at the Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1989. And now I have been serving and attending the same church with Billy Graham's daughter and Granddaughter and her family. It is such a blessing to see how God weaves our stories of faith together! What a small world we live in!

Am I that generous?

As I finished reading in 1 Chronicles 28 and 29, for our Daily Walk Bible readings, I was amazed at how generous King David was to the building project of the Temple for the LORD. When you do the math it is pretty amazing!!

Using numbers I found online Silver is worth $23.50 per ounce. According to my math (which was never a strong point of mine) there is 16 ounces per pound and 2000 pounds per ton and David gave 262 tons of silver. That means he gave 524,000 pounds of silver, or 8,384,000 ounces of silver which is worth, in 2013 dollars, $197,024,000.00 dollars. Over ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SEVEN MILLION dollars he gave in silver!

Using the same math process for gold, valued at $1,131.00 per ounce (!), he gave 112 tons of gold or 224,000 pounds of gold or 3,584,000 ounces of gold which would be valued at $4,053,504,000.00. That's over $4 BILLION in 2013 dollars of gold that he gave!

These figures don't even include all the bronze, iron, wood, precious gems and cut stone/marble that he also gave (1 Chr. 29:2-5)! And he gave WILLINGLY because he knew that "everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD...wealth and honor come from you alone...everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!" (1 Chr. 29:11-14).

Do we have the same willing spirit to give to the LORD, and to His work, that David and the nation of Israel had (1 Chr. 29:6, 9)?

According to Barna's new study that came out on April 12th, only 12% of born-again Christians tithed in 2012! Meaning only 12% gave 10% of their income to a church or non-profit. 

It looks to me like we, myself included, have A LOT TO LEARN from the generous spirit of King David and the people of Israel!

Ski Trip at Whistler Blackcomb

Back in the Fall I realized that my really good friend from college would be graduating from his Ph.D program at the University of Washington and it hit me, "if I'm ever going to ski Whistler Blackcomb with him this has to be the winter!!" Check one off the bucket list because this was an EPIC trip! Plus, the timing couldn't have been better...little did I know when I made these plans back in the Fall that things at our church were going to "go south." So I was unemployed on April 1st and getting on a plane April 6th which was a perfect way to decompress and forget about all the hard stuff that happened back at home. Enough of the blah, blah...here are some pictures.

I landed at Sea-Tac on Saturday April 6th and enjoyed lunch, and a sample flight of beers, at West Seattle's Neighborhood Brewpub called Elliott Bay Brewery...so tasty. We then went back to Sea-Tac to pick up our other college buddy and then relaxed at the home of our host. That night we enjoyed some tasty apps as we cheered on Wichita State and Michigan in the Final Four...good times.

Sunday we headed up to Vancouver and met up with a friend of our host's who graciously led us on a speed walking tour of Vancouver.

Vancouver is an awesome and gorgeous city with so much racial diversity. Pictured above is the entrance to China Town where we enjoyed the sights, smells and tastes, especially of the Coconut Rolls. Below we enjoyed lunch at "Dunns Famous" where we dined on "Poutines," a Canadian favorite consisting of cheese curds, Dunns special gravy and Montreal smoked meat on top of french fries. Yummy!

After Vancouver, but before Whistler, we stopped at the beautiful Shannon Falls Provincial Park off of Highway 99. The massive amounts of water was breathtaking!

We then drove up to Whistler and got checked into our ski-in, ski-out condo on Blackcomb mountain. Though it was raining we enjoyed the pedestrian friendly village and seeing all the sights left from the 2010 Olympics.

Lured in by the sale rack on the front steps, and seeing the Halloween-esqe orange skinny jeans for $13.99, Joe Yahtzee and Sam Champion decided to put on a fashion show...which almost made us miss getting food at the grocery store. Never fear, we divided and conquered and then I complained how shredded cheese was $6+ a bag and ice cream was $7-9 a carton.

Monday was our first ski day and as you can see, it was a gorgeous blue-bird day! I'll be honest, I was pretty skeptical of the skiing at first because at the base of Blackcomb the snow was gone and flowers were blooming. But as we gained elevation in the gondola Spring turned to Winter and the skiing was a blast!

If you don't mind heights the Peak to Peak Gondola ride is AMAZING!! Only 4 lift towers hold this incredible span of sightseeing spectacle which extends 2.73 miles in total length. It sets World Records for the following: longest free span between lift towers (1.88 miles), and the highest point above the ground (1,430 feet). Mom, you would've hated it!

On Tuesday we skied in this...dense clouds and fog. It was insane, scary and intense all at the same time. On some trails they had markers on both sides so that you would stay on the trails and away from the cliffs. At times I literally felt like I was skiing in nothingness because I couldn't see the snow below me, I had no sense of anything in my peripheral vision and I couldn't see my expert skiing friend ahead of me. It was eery and my heart raced but it was a new challenge for sure!

Gotta love this view as we head into the clouds on the Peak to Peak Gondola.

The only thing below my ski boots is a thousand foot free fall.

 Some cool stats, but you better work on your conversion skills.

My Fischer Watea 84's begging to get back out there!

From the Peak to Peak Gondola, this is what the skiers look like far below.

So Monday was springlike conditions with lots of blue skies and sun. Then Tuesday was cold with dense clouds and fog and on Wednesday...it dumped. We were skiing in freshies and getting face shots of pow on many turns. All told there was at least a foot of new snow which made for some sweet floating. Below you can see the snow and wind going at it.

Here we are, loving life and being together. A great reunion!

On the drive back I captured this shot on Highway 99. If you have never been to B.C. you have to put it on your list because it is so gorgeous!

All in all, we had a FABULOUS time together! It was such a blessing and an encouragement to be with these two guys and to tell old stories, catch up on our current lives, and to make new memories. The Lord must have known this was what I needed because the fellowship, the scenery, the food and drink and the skiing did wonders for my battered soul!

"Thanks for being my friends!" :)

Blackcomb Lodge on Dwellable

Pleasing God? Pleasing Man?

As I’ve been reading in 1^st and 2^nd Samuel, as part of our Daily Walk Bible readings, I’ve been challenged by the actions of King Saul (1 Sam. 15) and King David (2 Sam. 6). On the one hand, you’ve got King Saul who was all caught up in what people thought of him. For example, when Saul didn’t fully obey the Lord’s commands via Samuel he made the following excuse, “Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded” (1 Sam. 15:24, NLT, emphasis mine). For Saul, his decisions and actions were governed by what he thought the people desired and not what Samuel commanded or what the Lord required. A few verses later he was worried about his appearance before Israel when Samuel announced that he would not go with Saul to worship the Lord. Saul said, “but please, at least honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel by coming back with me…” (1 Sam. 15:30). For Saul, he was more concerned about what the people thought of him then what God thought of him. Saul was the quintessential people-pleaser.

On the other hand you have David who, in 2 Samuel 6, because of the return of the Ark of the Covenant, was dancing and leaping with joy before the Lord and he didn’t care what others thought. Even when his own wife, Michal, rebuked him for his supposed dancing to impress the ladies David responded with this defense, “Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!” (NLT) Apparently, to Michal, David’s worship was for show but David felt his dance was exclusively for God. His audience was an audience of One, God. As the commentary in our DWB showed, “in the eyes of the God who distinguishes motives, David’s worship was accepted, and Michal was rejected for her judgment.”

In these passages we saw that there were two kings with two different modes of operation. For David, his concern was God and his glory and decisions were made based on what God would want. While Saul was concerned with what the people thought and how it would bring him glory or shame.

In these challenging days I have been encouraged and heartened to have the attitude of King David. I want to also be like Paul who strove to live out Galatians 1:10, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (NIV).

People pleasing can lead to all kinds of negative consequences, just ask any teenager who gave into peer-pressure at some point and they will relay their regrets of their poor decisions. With our faith in Christ, and the pull of our society against Christian faith and Biblical values, this is even more the case. No matter what we face, I pray that we would “cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked” (1 Tim. 1:19, NLT).

My Final Sermon...

Palm Sunday, tomorrow, will be my final Sunday to preach at FPC and so I thought it fitting to show the marquee for this last sermon. The title reads "Givin' A Shout Out to Jesus" based on the Matthew 21:1-11 text where the crowd in Jerusalem loudly welcomes Jesus. I'll be focusing on:

1. Jesus, Lord of all (vs. 3)
2. Jesus, the humble King (vs. 5)
3. Jesus, the King who saves (vs. 9)
4. Jesus, the Prophet (vs. 11)

-->The problem with the crowds was that they welcomed him on Palm Sunday with shouts of "Hosanna (Save!) to the Son of David" but then they yelled "crucify Him" later in the week. Clearly they had all kinds of misconceptions of Jesus. And so do we!

We see, and restrict, Jesus to be our: ticket to heaven, or our fire insurance, or a nice guy who loves little children, or our homeboy who hangs with us, or our friend who only asks us to do easy and nice things, or our heavenly doctor who is at our beck and call to heal our diseases and aches and pains.
We mold him into an image of ourselves, what we would want, what we would be if we were God.

Therefore we avoid, myself included, his challenging statements of: the last shall be first, take up your cross daily and follow me, sell all your possessions and give to the poor and what you do to the least of these you do to me.

And so my question is, are we making the same mistake that the crowds made? Are we caught up in our misconceptions of who Jesus was and is? Or, are our thoughts about Jesus driven by what we see in God's Holy Word, specifically for my Palm Sunday purposes, here in Mt. 21:1-11?

My resignation from our church

Dear First Presbyterian Church Family,

It’s with mixed emotions that I announce that I will be resigning as the Pastoral Associate here at First Presbyterian effective April 1^st, 2013. I never dreamed things would unfold the way they did and it saddens me to think about the ministry potential here at FPC that will go unfulfilled. Yet, I remember the Apostle Paul’s words to his young disciple Timothy, “Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result their faith has been shipwrecked” (1 Tim. 1:19, NLT). As much as I love the people in FPC I have to do what I think is necessary to keep my conscience clear, and most importantly to cling to Christ, and I can’t do that and remain in the PC(USA).

I greatly appreciate how you welcomed this “Yankee” transplant from Ohio, via Massachusetts, into your hearts and lives. You all have blessed us immensely with your warm hospitality, your prayers and your numerous invitations for lunch, dinner and Breadbreakers. Thank you! My wife and I are grateful for the 22 months of ministry and service that we have had here and Lord knows I have learned a lot from my time as your Pastoral Associate. I pray and trust that these trials that we have faced, and are facing, “will show our faith is genuine” (1 Peter 1:7, NLT).

God bless you all! And no matter where we go, may this scripture passage from a recent Daily Walk Bible reading be true for us all, “May the LORD bless you and protect you. May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you. May the LORD show you his favor and give you his peace” (Numbers 6:24-26, NLT).

Soli Deo gloria, Seth

The House on the Solid Rock

 

Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester, MA

Photo Credit, click here

As I was reading 1st Samuel 4-8 this morning for our Daily Walk Bible reading I found myself thoroughly frustrated by the actions of the Israelites! How could the Israelites ask in 4:3, "why did the Lord allow us to be defeated by the Philistines?" Seriously!? In chapter 2 we read about how "the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the LORD or for their duties as priests" (vs. 12, NLT). And we recently read through Judges and we saw how abysmal the Israelites were in keeping the Covenant and commandments of the LORD. I shouldn't have been surprised by the Israelites question because this is human nature. But nevertheless I was still amazed that they could be so brazen to ask and imply that it was God's fault that they lost to the Philistines!?

Deuteronomy 28 was pretty clear that if the Israelites "fully obey the LORD your God and carefully keep all his commands...the LORD your God will ... conquer your enemies when they attack you" (vss. 1, 7). Obviously Joshua's command to the Israelites before his death "to be very careful to follow everything Moses wrote in the Book of Instruction" (Josh. 23:6) was clearly forgotten or ignored.

And so somehow it was now God's fault that they lost. It was God's fault that 4000 men were killed.

I was also dumbfounded by the Israelites presumption to not consult God (think the Gibeonite debacle in Joshua 9) but rather to assume that if they take the Ark of the Covenant into battle that the LORD would automatically save them from their enemies (4:3). What was probably well meaning and good intentioned turned out to be nothing more than treating the Ark of the Covenant, and therefore the LORD, as a talisman or a lucky charm. It's no surprise that they lost, again; and it's no surprise that Eli's daughter-in-law failed to realize that "the glory has departed from Israel" (4:21-22). Not so much because the Ark was captured (though that is certainly true) but more so because the LORD himself had left His people because they had first left Him.

I fear in the coming days and weeks I will be hearing similar questions, "why did the Lord allow..."

We need to remember that it wasn't God's fault that the Israelites lost to the Philistines. And we need to remember that it isn't God's fault when we fail to be a Gospel witness in our community.

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash” (Matthew 7:24-27).

"Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place" (2 Chronicles 7:14-15).